Elgato Video Capture – USB 2.0 Capture Card Device, Easy to Use, Convert Analog to Digital, with VHS VCR TV to DVD Adapter, for Mac, Windows or iPad

LOVE this product! It works perfectly and it is amazing! I've had it a little over a month and have converted about 10 tapes so far. Transferring my old family tapes to MP4 files has been on my to do list for years. It would have cost a fortune to pay for a conversion service because we have accumulated over 35 tapes in the past 25 years. Plus, I do not trust my tapes in the hands of strangers. The majority of my tapes are the 8mm cassettes from an old Sony camcorder. Downloading and installing the software online was super easy. I just connect the camcorder to the device with a cord that originally came with my camcorder. Then I connect the device to a USB port on my computer. The software is very self explanatory and easy to use. The video plays in the software as you are recording. You can watch it playing on you computer screen as well as in the play back screen on you camcorder. You do have to play the whole tape in real time to capture everything (there is no high speed dubbing like with old cassette tapes and some VHS recorders), but the software has an option to automatically stop recording after a time period you set, so you don't have to sit and watch it while it records. You can leave and have it work and stop on it's own. I have a Windows 10 Dell computer that is about 2 years old. Its not super powerful or anything (I bought it at Walmart for $400). I would recommend not running other applications while you are doing a conversion so the software has full access to all your computer's memory. That may be why others had issues. The converted MP4 file plays fine and is great quality. Sound matches exactly to the video. There are no skips or jumps in the video. (Again, I recommend you do not surf the internet or run any other applications on your computer while these conversions are in process.) In my 10 conversions I only had one fail early on where the software bombed out when it was creating the file after the tape finished playing. I think it was because I had some other applications running on my computer at the same time. Since I stopped using my computer during the conversion, I have not had any issues. In addition to my Sonny 8mm tapes, I was able to convert VHS tapes and DVD's which were played on my old Magnivox VCR/DVD Player/Recorder combo unit. I disconnected the Video Out cords which connected the unit to play on the TV. I used the cord that came with the Elgato device and connected it to the same Video Out connections in the unit and the other ends of the cords to the Elgato device, then connected the Elgato to my computer. You will then see the VHS tape or DVD play on your computer in the software while it is recording since the VHS/DVD player is no longer outputting to your TV. Recording results were the same as my 8mm camcorder tapes. I highly recommend this Elgato device! You will not regret it and you will get your money's worth if you have as many old tapes to convert as I do. Plus, you will have peace of mind knowing your recordings will be saved forever in a media that won't decay like old tapes eventually will.

I have an old 8 mm Sony camera that used FireWire for uploading the video to a computer. It worked great on windows XP. But when Windows 7 released it was glitchy, and I’ve never been able to get it to work on windows 10. It also has a component video audio out port. That is a small 2 1/2 mm plug that adapts to the yellow red white component video connections. It is an amazing old camera but technology moved away from fire wire. I sent the camera to a high-end camera shop that cleaned and tested it. I read a number of Internet blogs on how to make fire wire work with windows 10. I download countless drivers, tried numerous configurations, and it would not upload video. I finally gave up on the FireWire cable, and purchase the Pinnacle Dazzle component video capture device. Years ago I had pinnacle studio 14 and loved the program so I had high hopes this would work, but it did not. Driver issues and all kinds of glitchy gave me countless hours of troubleshooting to no avail . I was really frustrated! I was really getting worried since I have about 50 tapes spanning 35 years I need to digitize and preserve. Nearly 100 hours of memories. After watching an excellent YouTube video about this Elgato device I took one more chance and purchased it . It’s the best $90 I’ve ever spent. I hooked up the device to the component video on my camcorder, went to their website and download the Software for the capture device. I double clicked the software, and there’s four simple steps. 1. name the video click next. 2. Push play on the camera to make sure the video is coming through on the screen. once you see the video click next.3. Confirm you have sound. You can hear the sound when it comes through and there’s a 2 bar scale at the bottom of the page for the right and the left channel of sound. Once you have sound push the red button that says record.4. Wait for the entire video to play which most tapes can run up to two hours and once the video is finished click stop recording. No joke it’s that simple! They had some nice features like muting the sound so if you want to upload the video while you’re doing other work you’re not distracted by the sound. If you know your video on the cam corder is only a 60 minute tape you can automatically stop recording the video at 60 minutes so you can leave your computer and not have to worry about being there to stop it. There’s another simple area that will allow you to adjust the contrast brightness and other settings of the video to try to improve it. I played with this for a little while but found the default setting is the best for my videos. Depending on your computer it takes a short while to render for finalize the video and store it on your hard drive or which ever device you are saving it to. I have a New computer with the Intel I9 processor and and Nvidia 3070 graphics card and a 2 hour video takes about three minutes to process which is incredible! Each hour of 8mm video takes about 1 GB of memory. In the past two weeks I’ve uploaded nearly 25 of these two hour videos directly onto my NAS! I highly recommend anybody with a component video VHS or 8 mm camcorder or anything with the yellow red white cable that wants to save their memories to buy this device! Spend the $90 for this particular one since Elgato’s capture software is the secret sauce! There are hundreds of these devices for sale that look pretty much the same and there only $15. Don’t get fooled by a cheap price! If pinnacle studio can’t get the dazzle device correct I can’t imagine a $15 cheap knock off will get the software correct. Thank you El Gato! You have a very reliable very easy and excellent product! My children in their 30s and my grandchildren are enjoying watching all of these videos through my Apple TV!